"Ginny! What the hell is this!" Ron was yelling at his sister in front of the whole school. Malfoy dropped his fork back to his plate in disgust. How could he eat with all this obnoxious ruccus?
Ginny had come storming into the Great Hall a moment before her brother, hoping the eyes of the rest of the school would be enough to shut him up, but they weren't. He was standing over her, yelling. She tried to ignore him.
He grabbed her wrist and pushed her sleeve back. "What happened?" he demanded, referring to the several red lines and countless white scars.
"None of your bloody business!" She yanked her arm free from him and stood up to leave.
Malfoy, unable to ignore the tableaux, unconsciously pulled the short sleeve of his t-shirt, making sure it was completely down.
Ron grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. "What do you mean? Of course it's my business! My sister is being mutilated!"
"Stop being so dramatic!" She bit out, trying to pull free, but he held her tight. "It's just a few scrapes!"
"A few! It looks like someone's been ruetinely..." he never got to finish his statement.
Malfoy, almost completely unaware of what he was doing, had gotten to his feet and walked over so that he was standing behind Ginny. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he pushed Ron's off. "Leave her alone. If she wanted you to know what happened she would tell you." His eyes were flasing dangerously.
Ginny tensed under his touched. What on earth? Malfoy was defending her? Suddenly it hit. From where he had been sitting, he would have been able to see her arm when Ron had pushed the sleeve back. He knew what had happened.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER!" Ron shouted in Malfoy's face.
Really stupid move, git. Ginny thought.
Malfoy calmly raised an eyebrow. "She's not complaining."
It was true, she wasn't. She had relaxed when she realized why he was standing behind her.
"This is none of your business, Malfoy. Ginny, let's go back to the common room..." Harry tried to find a way out of this. He was too worried about Gin to care about Malfoy right now.
"Hm..." Malfoy seemed to think for a moment, "none of my business, eh? I believe the opposite is true. It's none of your business. What do you think, Red?" He cocked his head so he could look at her. "Want to get out of here?"
She looked directly into Ron's eyes as she said, "More than anything."
Malfoy didn't remove his hand from her shoulder until they were well away from the castle. "Want to tell me what that was about?" he finally asked her.
She almost laughed. "You don't know?" she asked a bit sarcastically.
He stopped, grabbed her wrist, and pushed her sleeve up. His eyes never left hers, though. Without looking down at her arm, he asked, "Why?"
She raised her eyebrows. Reaching up with her free hand, she slid the sleeve of his left arm up, exposing his own cuts and scars. Keeping her eyes locked with his, she asked, "Want to tell me?"
"Live at Malfoy Manor for one day," he answered emotionlessly.
"Have Tom Riddle in your head for the same," her tone matched his.
"Fair enough," his tone was suddenly light and he released her wrist. Breaking their intense stare, he started walking again.
Matching his stride, she asked, "You understand, so what? Why help?"
"Because you understand." He stopped and found her eyes again. "I'm a disgrace among Slytherin, to my father. I'm weak. I feel pain." His voice was hard and cold, anything but weak. "You know what's it like to be something you can't escape, to have something in you, killing you from the inside out, that can only be eased by bleeding."
She searched his eyes for a moment longer before breaking contact and continueing their walk.
They walked for hours. They walked until they had to use their wands to light their way. They walked aimlessly. Hardly a word was said. Eventually she grew tired and they laid down under the stars. They didn't return to the school until one a.m.
There was no good night. There were no parting words at all. They simply returned to their dorms. They understood.
A/N: this is a random piece that came to mind. can't decide whether it's a one-shot or not, though. that's why i posted it even though i already have two stories currently posted.